My Experience with Health Care

So first off, drugs are less regulated than in the US and can easily be bought over the counter. At the pharmacy a few meters from my dorm you can get anything from amoxicillin to Xanax. The only drug that I know is strictly regulated- I think its actual very illegal- is Adderall because Thailand has a meth problem and because employers used to give their employees really high doses to increase productivity and there were major public health issues that followed. Anyway, about 3 weeks ago I got a sinus infection. I was achey all over and extremely congested and was coughing up a lot of gross things but nothing new- I just netty potted a lot and took mucinex and clariton and advil and drank a lot of water. On Wednesday night I ate Mexican food to celebrate a friends’ birthday and ended up getting some mild food poisoning. I woke up with some stomach pain that night and ended up having to run out of my 10am to vom. I went to the school nurse and she gave me stuff to rehydrate, nausea medicine, fever medicine, and antibiotics for my sinus infection. She had me take 7 pills just sitting there, which was very surprising at first because I have never had a school nurse who could prescribe me medicine. I declined the anti-b’s because I try to avoid them as much as possible to decrease my chances of later resistance, but she was persistent and I realized that I really should avoid sickness at all cost while I’m in Thailand because it’s harder to recover. Anyway, my stomach was completely fine by the afternoon and I completely recovered from the sinus infection after 5 days.

 

The next Monday night a bunch of the exchange students went to a local pizza place called Mamma Mia, owned my an Italian immigrant, to eat pizza and watch the superbowl. Since the super bowl was aired at 6 am Monday morning for us, we watched the recording, projected on the wall. Most people avoided internet that day and didn’t actually know who won, and there’s a bunch of San Francisco students, so it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, at about 3:30 am I woke up with a pretty intense stomachache but I thought I just needed to burp so I went to the kitchen and found some 7-Up. Instead I ended up throwing up for the next few hours, pretty much until all the water in me was out so there was nothing more to get out. The pain in my stomach intensified, and I became hysterical because of severe abdomenal pain. It felt like my intestines were being squeezed and twisted. I went to talk to my friend Taylor, who I shared a pizza with, and Beth, who I shared a drink with, and both were fine. At this point I decided I needed to go to the hospital, but needed to wait till I could calm down and manage the pain. Also, I was still very nauseous and I wasn’t sure if I would make it through a whole cab ride so I needed to wait to make sure any food or liquid was out of my body before I would go. My university, Mahidol, has a hospital near the campus so I had a cab take me to school and I planned on finding someone who could direct me there. I was pretty pleased with myself because I was able to use the Thai I had just learned to ask directions to get to the hospital, but after talking to 10 people walking near a street on campus (mostly students, but guards too) I was getting pretty antsy/just trying to stay calm and eventually we went to the International College and the receptionist had a map to show the taxi driver. Once I got in the hospital, someone immediately walked me to talk to a nurse, who had me fill out some paperwork and then to another place where I filled out more paperwork and had my picture taken and given an ID card. Then the women gave me my folder and told me to find another room- her English was broken but she was very sweet told me she liked my cheetah print dress. Everything was in Thai and I was the only non-Thai person, but I think people could tell I had no idea what to do because someone, even other patients, was always directing me where to go without me asking. I think I looked pretty rough too- I was pale and my eyes were very swollen from all the crying. Once in the room, I talked with the nurse who spoke the best English. She asked me to speak slowly and repeat myself, but I think mostly understood what was going on and then took all my vitals, which were normal. They gave me a number that would be called out when it was my time. I know my numbers, but there were a bunch of other announcements and I realized I wouldn’t be able to figure out when I was being called. I went up to the nurse and handed her my number and she smiled and took my number away and when they called it they did it all in English, which was sweet.

            The doctor was a woman and spoke perfect English. I was most surprised that upon entering and leaving she did the wai to me, a bow of respect given to those higher on the social hierarchy. The wai is done from younger to older people, employees to employers, students to teachers, and people in the service industry, like a waiter to his customer. I suppose doctors wai because they provide service to patients, but they are so educated that I expected patients to be showing respect to them. She basically told me it was some sort of GI infection, probably from food poisoning, and the abdominal pain is called GI spasms. She prescribed a bunch of medicine and wrote me a doctor’s note. I took the piece of paper the doctor gave me to the pharmacy, where they gave me another slip to bring to the cashiers, where I was given another slip to take to the pharmacy. An older Thai man walked me from the pharmacy to the cashier and back, showing me when to stand in line and what to show the staff. He also didn’t speak English but had a very sweet smile. I was given nausea and vomiting medicine, pain medication to relieve the GI spasms, an anti-biotic, headache and fever medicine, and powder to make into an orange tang drink to help me re-hydrate. All the treatment and medicine was free because the hospital is part of my university, so students are treated for free! Afterward, I went back to my dorm and because I needed to eat to take my medicine, ate half a granola bar, and went to bed. I went to school the next day, but still could only eat a little oatmeal and plain rice, but by three days later I could eat a normal meal! I noticed my appetite has shrunk quite a bit, but that just means I am full after a normal sized Thai meal- I was eating a ton at the beginning because the food was so good, but it was not very healthy.

            Malhar, Beth and I went to this place called the Magnum Café last week. You can go and get a milk, dark, or white chocolate Magnum ice cream bar and then pick from 20 different toppings from peanuts to chili flakes to white chocolate chips. I got pistachio, marshmallow, brownie, and chocolate sauce on mine, which was excellent. We were talking about our worst experiences here. Malhar is Indian, and Thais can be prejudice against Indians, as well as black people. Both Malhar, and our other friend Ivan, have had some bad interactions where people are less than friendly and harsh, to making full on racist comments (someone yelled ‘monkey’ at Ivan when he was running at a local park recently). Thais are typically very sweet and non-confrontational people and I never really considered open prejudices until I got here. Beth said that her worst experiences with the people have been with other students at school, which I understand. Especially at the beginning of school, the girls were very unfriendly and stared, and then whispered in a circle. For her, the only friendly students are boys. The staring is among of the most awkward things. Sometimes we will be walking to catch a taxi near our dorm and walk past people eating at street stalls and entire groups, usually men, will literally stop talking and all stare and sometimes stand. We live in an area with no tourists so I think it can be surprising for locals to see Westerners all styled. Malhar then asked if me getting sick was my worst experience. It was definitely one of my worst days in the last few years, but I think I still count it as a good experience. The hospital was competent, helpful, and free, and I was greeted with so much kindness across the board. I’m really lucky to be around such good health care because there are so many places in SE Asia where care of this quality is unavailable.